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Toho animated films

  • My Neighbor TotoroMy Neighbor Totoro, a 1988 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, opens on a family driving to an old house in the…
  • Tales from Earthsea (film)In 1985, Ursula K. Le Guin received a call from Hayao Miyazaki through the bookseller Iwanami Shoten. She turned him down because she had not seen his films…
  • Spirited AwaySpirited Away opens on a ten-year-old girl named Chihiro Ogino riding in her parents' imported Audi, sulking about moving to a new neighborhood.
  • Macross: Do You Remember Love?The film premiered in Japanese theaters on the 7th of July 1984. It was a reinterpretation of episodes two through twenty-seven of the Super Dimension…
  • The Cat ReturnsIn 1995, Studio Ghibli released a film titled Whisper of the Heart. That project introduced Baron, a cat figurine who came to life within a fantasy sequence.
  • The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (film)In 1960, Isao Takahata prepared a potential adaptation of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter for Toei Animation. That project never came to fruition.
  • Princess MononokePrincess Mononoke arrived in Japanese cinemas on the 12th of July, 1997, and within days the newspapers had a name for what was happening: the "Mononoke…
  • Only Yesterday (1991 film)Hotaru Okamoto published the manga Omoide Poro Poro in 1982, establishing a quiet story about a young girl named Taeko. Yuko Tone drew the illustrations that…
  • Pom PokoIn the Tama Hills, a group of tanuki drummed their bellies to create a sound like Pom Poko. This rhythm came from a 1919 poem by Ujō Noguchi that became a…
  • PonyoPonyo begins with a goldfish-like creature trapped inside a glass jar, drifting toward shore on the back of a jellyfish.
  • When Marnie Was There (film)Anna Sasaki stands alone in the Kushiro wetlands of Hokkaido. Her asthma attack at school had sent her to this rural seaside town between Kushiro and Nemuro.
  • Whisper of the HeartWhisper of the Heart is a 1995 Japanese animated film that begins with a small, almost invisible mystery: a girl notices that every library book she picks up…
  • ArriettyArrietty is a 2010 Japanese animated fantasy film from Studio Ghibli, and it carries with it a question that has haunted filmmakers for decades: how do you…
  • The Wind RisesHayao Miyazaki began conceiving the story of The Wind Rises in 2008, marking his first feature film since Ponyo. He published a manga series based on this…
  • Akira (1988 film)Akira exploded onto Japanese screens on the 16th of July 1988, the same date the film's own story marks as the day Tokyo was obliterated by a mysterious…
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen TrainTanjiro Kamado steps onto the Mugen Train with his sister Nezuko and friends Zenitsu Agatsuma and Inosuke Hashibira. They board to assist Flame Hashira…
  • Mary and the Witch's FlowerIn 1971, Mary Stewart published a children's book titled The Little Broomstick. A few months after its release, Walt Disney Productions acquired the film…
  • Porco RossoPorco Rosso is a 1992 Japanese animated film by Hayao Miyazaki about a man who has become a pig. Not metaphorically. Marco Pagot, an Italian ace from the…
  • The Boy and the HeronHayao Miyazaki stood before a press conference in Tokyo on the 14th of September 2013 and declared his retirement from feature animation.
  • The Red TurtleIn 2008, Vincent Maraval walked into the Studio Ghibli offices in Tokyo. He was a co-founder of Wild Bunch, a French production company seeking new projects.
  • Pokémon: The First MoviePokémon: The First Movie opened on a Wednesday in November 1999, and so many children skipped school to see it that the day earned its own nickname: the…
  • Your NameMakoto Shinkai stood in the fishing village of Yuriage on the 14th of July 2011. The ground beneath his feet still trembled from the massive earthquake that…
  • Howl's Moving Castle (film)Studio Ghibli announced the production of two films in September 2001. The second project was an adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones' novel Howl's Moving Castle.
  • Royal Space Force: The Wings of HonnêamiseRoyal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise began not in a studio but in a proposal handed to a toy company executive in September 1984.